Gaston Bachelard envers l’inconscient

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the category of “unconsciousness” in Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy. The author shows that this category was important for the entire Bachelardian philosophy, regardless of its subject matter and sources of inspiration. Referring to both the psychoanalysis of objective cognition and the philosophy of imagination, she proves that, following the philosopher, we can distinguish three levels of unconsciousness: individual, collective and cosmic. The cosmic unconsciousness results from both the acceptance of material imagination (L’eau et les rêves, 1942) and from the recognition of the assumptions of Lúcio Pinheiro dos Santos’ rhythmanalysis. An important context analyzed in the text is Cartesian philosophy and the category of cogito, which appears in The Poetics of Dreams, 1942. However, this is not Descartes’ cogito – transparent and absolute – but Bachelard’s cogito, subordinated to the unconscious.